The First Mills
Chambly Canal
Peru was officially incorporated as a
township Dec. 28, 1792. At that time there
were no buildings in the location where
Peru Village now stands. John Cochran,
known as the founder of Peru, built the
first house here on the east bank of the
Little Ausable River in 1795. Realizing
the potential water power the river could
provide, he also built a grist mill and
another house for his miller, Thomas
Morse. Cochran next built a saw-mill at
this same location, but on the other side
of the river. “Two houses, a grist-mill and a
saw-mill made quite a settlement in those
days and the place soon became known as
Cochran’s Mills” (from Hurd’s History of
Clinton & Franklin Cos. 1880). Prior to
this time, the early settlers of the area had
to travel all the way to Plattsburgh for their
milling needs.
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Up until 1890 most of the flour in
America was made using millstones. The
bottom stone was fixed to the floor, while
the top stone was turned by the main shaft,
driven by the waterwheel. The distance
between the stones could be varied to
produce the grade of flour required; moving
the stones closer together produced finer
flour. Photo from the Henry Ford Museum
courtesy of C.A. Sheild.
The gristmill, where farmers would bring a wide variety of grains, including buckwheat, oats and corn, to be ground into
flour or animal feed. Milling was a three-story process. The grain was lifted in sacks onto the top floor of the mill by hoist.
The sacks were then emptied into bins, which fed the grain down through a hopper to the millstones on the floor below.
The grain then flowed through a sloping trough into a hole in the center of the top stone. The milled grain (flour) was collected as it emerged through the grooves in the bottom stone from the outer rim of the stones and was fed down a chute to
be collected in sacks on the ground floor. Photo courtesy of the Town of Peru Historian’s Collection.
The grist-mill and saw-mill were eventually
sold to John Hackstaff and the infant
village then became known as Hackstaff’s
Mills. The mills and surrounding property
passed on to the Heyworth family who,
in turn, leased them to Albert Mason in
1883. Mason moved his bee-hive business
from Goshen to this location and started A.
Mason & Sons Lumber Co. The saw-mill
expanded many times over the years but the
grist-mill was mainly used for storage and as
a horse barn. Mason’s teams of horses were
housed there right up to the 1940’s.
The grist-mill and original saw-mill were
burned and razed in 1967 to make way for
the new highway bridge.
Ad from The Plattsburgh
Sentinel, 1876.
Armed with only axes and cross cut saws, farmers would head into the woods
in the winter with their teams of horses to cut and haul logs back to the saw
mill. Credit: Town of Peru Historian’s Collection.
The sawmill, as part of A Masons and Sons Lumber Mill, c. 1900. Please note the stone arch on the river that’s still
visible today, where water that had carried the logs to the mill flowed back into the river. Photo courtesy of the Town of
Peru Historian’s Collection.
In the sawmill, c. 1900, the first cut; turning logs into lumber. Photo
courtesy of the Town of Peru Historian’s Collection.